Sony Announces Massive Layoffs

It’s been a poor year for Sony. At the beginning of the year, billions of dollars were lost in their last financial year and there were layoffs then as well. Back in April, there were rumours circling that Sony would be laying off around %6 of the company, an approximate number of 10,000. The plans were later confirmed by Sony claiming that they intend to reach their financial goals for 2012. Sony is “restructuring” itself “in a bit to regain global competitiveness”.

Today, the first step in those plans are coming into fruition. Reuters has revealed these plans to the world on their website. However, these plans have been pushed back to take affect by March 2013.

According to the report, Sony will “cut staff” at the Gifu, Japan HQ by laying off 2,000 workers which is roughly one-fifth of that branch. Factories that produce Sony camera lenses and mobile phones will be shut down as well as 1,800 staff working at a “chemical business” that’s been given to a Japanese bank by Sony. But the East isn’t the only place where layoffs will be taking place. Approximately 2,000 workers in Europe will be made redundant. The report states that the number of 10,000 will be made up of “job losses will be at other factories around the world”. Half of the European layoffs will be “half at a joint mobile phone venture with Ericsson”.

Before the announcement of it’s restructuring, the company revealed that it lost over $2 billion dollars. However, Sony reported a loss of £12 million dollars in August which by all accounts, is a still a loss, but it’s a sizeably smaller loss than at the beginning of the year. So it would seem that Sony is slowly on a rocky road to financial recovery. The company is hoping to save $378.6 million a year by the restructuring and layoffs.

Naturally, this is an unfortunate situation and our best wishes go out to the employees and their families.

George Sinclair is an editor for Analog Addiction, the home of the latest news, reviews and previews. You can follow George on Twitter and his blog on IGN. Don’t forget to follow the OFFICIAL Analog Addiction Twitter!